Losing to Myself
by mephiles97
Summary: We all know that Flippy flips out, right? Well... What happens when he starts to flip out even we he DOESN'T get reminded of the war? His evil side has begun to consume him and take over him... And he refuses to let anyone help him fight. Can this seasoned War Veteran fight back alone? Or will he fall victim to his worst nightmare: himself?


**Title: Losing to Myself**

**Chapter 1: Beginning**

**Well… Um… I don't really know what to say. I've just recently gotten into Happy Tree Friends, so I decided to try my hand at writing a fanfiction for it. Anyway… I'm going to center this story on my favorite character, Flippy. I'm going to use some of the other characters, along with a few of my OCs. Anyway… I hope you enjoy the story! Hopefully it'll turn out ok.**

_Pounding heartbeat… Heavy breathing… Glowing yellow eyes peering out of the darkness. He crouched low to the ground, breathing in and out heavily as his crazed eyes glinted with excitement. A wicked giggle escaped his throat as his glowing eyes pierced through the darkness, just waiting for someone to walk by. He was ready to hunt; to kill._

_He was flipped. He knew he was, but at the same time, he didn't want to stop it. He tried to fight it, but he couldn't resist the urge that it gave him. Plus, his other half wouldn't allow him to be himself again. He wanted him to attack, to kill, and to fight._

_His eyes glinted as a wicked grin spread across his mint green face. He watched as the light purple beaver and the dark red porcupine slowly walked past him, both of them talking too much to even realize his presence. He crouched low to the ground as he slowly pulled a bowie knife from his pocket; he was ready for the kill._

"Have you seen Flippy around today, Flaky? I know you two are pretty good friends…" The purple beaver said, stopping and looking at the red porcupine.

"No, I haven't seen him today, Toothy," The porcupine replied, stopping and turning to face the beaver. "In fact, I'm seeing less and less of him each day… Do you think he's alright? I don't think he's gone back to War because of his PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)… Do you think that could be what's bothering him lately? The last time I saw him, he seemed like something was bothering him…" A glint of worry showed in her eyes.

_He narrowed his eyes, still watching them from the darkness. He knew they were talking about him, and he wished they could talk to them, but his other half held him tight in his evil grasp. He growled softly, slowly raising the bowie knife._

Toothy shook his head, lowering his dark purple beaver tail. "I honestly don't know, Flaky… I honestly don't. But, I do agree with you, Flaky. I saw him maybe… about a week ago, I think. He seemed really stressed out, like something was bothering him or something…"

"Exactly my point, Toothy." Flaky's eyes revealed worry. "I just wish I knew what was going through his mind… Everything seems to be so hard on him… I even wondered what goes through his mind even when he flips out. I can't imagine how horrible he feels…" She looked down at her feet, feeling awful. "Sometimes I wish I could help him…"

"But, I thought you used to be afraid of him when he flipped, Flaky."

"I _was_, but not really anymore… Now I just feel bad for him and wish I could help him through it when he _does_ flip out…"

_He slowly tilted his head to the side, listening to Flaky's quiet words. He slowly lowered the bowie knife, his eyes slowly dimming their bright yellow glow. He was slowly beginning to calm down, until a voice began to speak to him and tell him to attack. His eyes lit back up, and a wicked giggle escaped his throat as he raised the bowie knife once more._

Toothy's ears twitched as he suddenly looked around, alert. "Flaky… Did you hear that?"

"What? Did I hear what?" Flaky asked, tilting her head to the side. Her eyes slowly went wide when she heard a low, menacing growl… This also sounded very familiar to her. "F-Flippy…? Is that you…?"

As soon as she asked that, the mint green bear leaped out of the shadows, immediately diving at her with the bowie knife raised high. He snarled in anger, focusing his complete attention on Flaky.

"Flaky! Watch out!" Toothy grabbed ahold of the porcupine's arms, jerking her out of the way as the bear came down hard on the ground where she was standing just moments before. He frowned, holding Flaky protectively. "Back off, Flippy! I won't let you hurt her!"

The mint green bear simply narrowed his eyes at Toothy, raising the bowie knife with an angry growl. His eyes glowed with a bright yellow color, revealing pure hate and malice. He smelled heavily of fresh blood, as it stained his mint fur and his military jacket. It dripped from his clenched fingers, forming a tiny puddle beside him.

"Let go of me, Toothy! I want to talk to him!" Flaky snapped at the beaver, pulling herself out of his hold. She looked at the bear with worried eyes. "Flippy! Please calm down! Don't hurt anyone else!"

"He can't hear you, Flaky! He's flipped… You know he is…" Tooth replied, standing close to Flaky.

"I know he is, Toothy! And, I'm sure that he can hear me! I know the normal Flippy is in there somewhere!" Flaky replied with a somewhat angry tone to her voice. She looked back at Flippy with pleading eyes.

Flippy just simply stared back at her with his malice-filled eyes. He stepped towards Flaky and Toothy, raising the bowie knife, ready to strike.

"Flaky, run! We have to get out of her or we'll be his next victims!" Toothy said, sharply, turning to run.

As much as she hated it, Flaky sighed as she turned and ran with Toothy, running away from the bloody Flippy. "I know you'll be ok later, Flippy! I know you will!"

Flippy let out an angry scream, chasing after Toothy and Flaky with the knife raised high. He locked his eyes on them, staring at them with hate.

"I think you made him mad, Flaky! HE'S CHASING US NOW!" Toothy screamed in fear, running as fast as he could to get away from the knife-bearing Flippy.

Flaky breathed in and out heavily in fear, her eyes going wide as she struggled to run faster. "It's not my fault, Toothy!" She huffed, trying to catch up to Toothy. "Wait! I'm not as fast as you!"

Toothy slowly his run a little bit, reaching his hand out to Flaky. He continued running, barely looking over his shoulder at her. "Here, grab my hand! Hurry, Flaky!" His eyes went wide when he noticed that Flippy was gaining on Flaky, about to catch up to her. "HURRY! HE'S GETTING CLOSE!"

Flaky reached out for Toothy's hand, but screamed when she felt a hard grab and jerk on her shoulders. She fell backwards into Flippy's waiting arms, a look of horror on her face as she stared up at his evil grin and eyes. "F-Flippy… Snap out of it… Please…"

Flippy raised the knife, a crazy look on his face as he aimed it right between Flaky's eyes. He dove the knife towards her, but suddenly froze right before it actually pierced her skin. His eyes went wide, slowly dimming until they turned to their natural color of black.

"Flippy…? Is that you? Can you hear me…?" Flaky asked quietly, shaking with fear as she stared at the knife hovering just inches above her face.

Flippy slowly turned his head, slowly looking down at Flaky. He moved his arm and dropped the knife to the ground in horror. "Flaky…? What happened…?" He looked down at his blood soaked clothes, horrified. "Oh no… I flipped again…"

"You… actually remember flipping out, Flippy? Usually you don't…"Flaky commented, somewhat surprised. She stood up, slowly pulling herself out of Flippy's arms.

Flippy didn't reply. He just pressed his hands against his upset eyes and slowly backed away from Flaky, horrified. "I… I can't explain it to you, Flaky…" He whispered quietly.

"What…? What do you mean, Flippy…? You can tell me what's wrong…" Flaky said with worry in her voice.

Flippy slowly shook his head, still backing away from Flaky. "Flaky… I'm so sorry…" He whispered, slowly turning away from her.

"No… Flippy… Wait…" Flaky reached out for Flippy, but watched as he ran away from her, quickly disappearing from sight. "Flippy…"

"Flaky! Are you alright?!" Toothy called, running back to Flaky. He took a deep breath, worn out. "I didn't mean to nearly leave you! I didn't know that he had gotten you!"

"Don't worry about it, Toothy… I'm fine…" Flaky replied quietly, lowering her head as she thought of Flippy.

"Flaky, are you sure you're ok? You don't sound ok… Did Flippy hurt you? Is that why you're upset?" Toothy asked, slightly worried about his friend.

"No, he didn't hurt me…" Flaky replied quietly.

"Then what's made you sound so upset?"

"It's nothing, Toothy… Don't worry about it…" She sighed, slowly raising her head back up. "Anyway… Are we still going over to Cuddles' house? We were going to go watch a movie with him, right?"

"If you still want to go, that is. If you're too upset, I can take you home and then go by myself…" Toothy said. "I'm sure Cuddles would understand…"

"It's ok, Toothy… I'll still come. I promised him I would come, anyway…"

"Ok… Let's go, then." Toothy said, slowly beginning to walk with Flaky. He scratched his head, wondering what happened to Flippy. "Hey… Where did Flippy go, anyway? Did he run off or something?"

Flippy lowered her head again at the thought of Flippy. "Yeah… He calmed down and ran off… I don't know where he went, though…"

"Hm… Maybe he went back to his house or something? I don't know…" Toothy scratched his head again, continuing to walk with Flaky. "I wonder what even got him flipped out in the first place... Oh well. At least he calmed down…" He noticed Flaky had her head down again. "Wait… Is Flippy what's upsetting you? Did he say something to upset you before he ran off?"

"It's was nothing, Toothy… Don't worry about it…" Flaky replied, slowly raising her head back up. "Now… Let's get going to Cuddles house before he thinks that we're not going to show up…" She said, trying to change the subject.

Toothy raised an eye brow, realizing that she was trying to change the subject. He sighed, deciding to leave her alone about what happened between her and Flippy. "Right…. Let's go."

"Thank you, Toothy…" Flaky replied, knowing that he stopped asking on purpose even though he wanted to. "What kind of movie do you think we're going to be watching?" She asked, trying to keep the subject changed off of Flippy.

"I honestly don't know. He didn't tell me _what_ we were going to watch; he just said that he was bored and wanted to watch a movie with his friends," Toothy replied.

"Alright… Works for me. His house is around the corner, right?"

"Yeah, it is. In fact, I see the driveway right now," Toothy replied as he pointed to a tall house. "This is his house."

"Ok. I think I remember his house, now. I may have been here once a twice…" Flaky shrugged her shoulders, walking up to the front door. "Cuddles! It's Flaky and Toothy!"

A few moments later, the bright yellow rabbit quickly opened the door, a bright smile on his face. "Hi, guys! I've been waiting for you!"

Toothy smiled back at the rabbit, giving a small wave. "Sorry it took us so long to get here, Cuddles. We ran into someone on the way here…"

"Really? Who did you run into?" Cuddles asked curiously, moving out of the doorway so Toothy and Flaky could come inside.

Toothy started to answer Cuddles, but stopped when he noticed that Flaky seemed upset again. He shook his head at Cuddles and mouthed to him that he would tell him later as he pointed to Flaky, shaking his head.

Cuddles nodded his head, understanding Toothy's 'I'll tell you later when Flaky's not here' silent message. "Anyway… Are we still going to watch a movie?"

"Yeah, I'd love to," Toothy replied as he smiled.

Flaky tilted her head to the side, wondering why Cuddles suddenly seemed to not care about knowing who they ran in to. She hadn't seen Toothy's silent message when he gave it to Cuddles. "Cuddles? Did you lose interest in what we were saying or something?"

Cuddles rolled his eyes to the left, scratching his head as he quickly tried to come up with an answer. "Well, no… I still want to know, but I don't want to ask and bother you… You seemed upset when I asked."

"Oh… Ok…"

"Hey… Do you think you could set up the movie while Toothy and I go prepare some snacks, Flaky? Please?" Cuddles asked, changing the subject back to the movie.

"Sure, I can do that. Where IS the movie, anyway?" Flaky asked, looking around the room.

"It's in that blue DVD case on top of the TV right there, Flaky," Cuddles replied, following Toothy towards the kitchen. "Thank you for setting it up! I appreciate it!"

"No problem, Cuddles. You're welcome!" Flaky called back, plugging the DVD player in and setting everything else up.

"Were we really coming in here to get snacks? Or do you want to talk to me about who we ran into earlier?" Toothy asked, turning to face Cuddles when they were out of Flaky's earshot.

"Both. I really _did_ come in here to gets drinks and snacks, but I also thought we could use this to talk. So, who did you run into?" Cuddles asked, opening his cabinets and digging through them.

"We ran into Flippy on the way here…" Toothy replied while looking around the corner to make sure that Flaky wasn't paying attention.

"Whoa, seriously? You ran into **FLIPPY**? I haven't seen him in weeks!" Cuddles replied, quite surprised at the fact that they had seen Flippy.

"He was flipped when we saw him… He scared us to death when he attacked us in an ambush."

"He was flipped? Figures… What happened to get him all flipped? Do you know?"

"No, I honestly have no idea what had him like that. He was already flipped out when we saw him… But, here's the crazy thing: It's almost like he was _waiting _for us or somebody to walk past. He seemed like he was more in a killer mood than he normally is…"

"Wait, wait, what?" Cuddles looked at Toothy, shocked. "He was waiting for you?! Are you serious?!"

"Well, I don't know if he was actually waiting for us or not, but that's really what it seemed like…" Toothy replied. "That's also why Flaky doesn't want to talk about it… Supposedly, Flippy said something to her right after he turned normal. He ran off right after that…"

"He did? Really?"

"Well, I saw him run away, but didn't hear what was said. I asked Flaky, and she got really, really upset. That's also why I didn't want to tell you in front of her."

"Dang… I wonder what happened between them…" Cuddles looked past Toothy, and his eyes went wide. "Uh oh…"

"I think Flippy could be going crazy or something, dude. It seems like he's flipping out more and more lately," Toothy continued, not paying attention to the look on Cuddle's face. "Plus, he keeps disappearing and no one has been seeing him lately… Flaky says that she wants to help him, but I don't know if she can if it's THAT bad…"

"D-Dude… You better watch it…" Cuddles said quietly, still wearing a wide-eyed look on his face. He slowly raised his hand, pointing past Toothy's shoulder.

Toothy froze as his eyes went wide. "…She's right behind me, isn't she?"

"Uh huh…"

Toothy slowly turned around to face Flaky, scratching his head when he noticed the extremely hurt, upset look on her face. "Flaky… I… I'm so sorry…"

Flaky slowly lowered her head, tears beginning to well up in her eyes as she remember what Flippy had said. "You really think that I can't help Flippy…?"

"Well, I'm sure that all of us want to help Flippy with his PTSD, but it's getting to where it seems like it's just getting worse and worse for him… Almost like no one can help him…"

"That doesn't mean I'm not going to try to help him! I'm sure somebody could help him if they tried hard enough!" Flaky screamed back, struggling to hold back tears. "And, I'm one of those people that want to try hard to help him! I know I can! No matter what you think!" She turned away from them, and walked out of Cuddle's house, slamming the door behind her as she walked out.

"….So, I guess the movie is off, now?" Cuddles asked, trying to break the awkward silence that Flaky had left behind.

Toothy sighed, turning to face Cuddles. "No… We can still watch it if you really want to… I'm sure Flaky will get over that in a little while…"

"Are you sure? She seemed pretty dang upset…"

"I'm sure she will eventually… Anyway, let's go watch that movie now…"

"Ok…"

Flaky walked down the dimly lit sidewalk, tears stinging her eyes as she stared down at the ground. _"Who cares what they think…? I don't care if they think I can help Flippy or not… I'm at least going to try…"_ She thought to herself as she continued walking. She slowly looked up, seeing a dark green, bunker like house in the distance; Flippy's home. She looked at the windows, but didn't see any lights coming from them. _"I don't see any lights on… But that doesn't mean that Flippy isn't home… He could be sitting in the dark…"_ She walked up to the front door, about to knock.

"I don't care what you want from me… I don't want to deal with you anymore…" He said, clenching his bloody fists together. He stared into the dark corner of the room, an angry look on his face.

"_It doesn't matter what you think or what… You know that you can't fight me… You know that I'll win…"_ A heavy voice spoke to him from the darkness. A pair of eerie golden yellow eyes stared back at the blood covered bear.

"Shut up… I don't want to hear it! I beat you before, and I can beat you again!" He replied angrily, frowning.

"_I'm stronger than you… Your stress powers me forward… The more you stress about me, the more powerful I become…"_

"No… That can't be true…" His eyes went wide, horrified.

"_Oh, but it is… You belong to me now… Or, you will soon… You can't fight me… No matter how hard you try…" _The voice whispered, slowly beginning to fade away.

He slowly buried his face in his blood-covered hands, releasing an angry sigh. "I can't take this anymore… Maybe he really WILL win… I can't fight him like this… He gets more and more control each day…"


End file.
